Month: August 2022

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-Top News USA

US Speaker Nancy Pelosi embarks on Asia trip

Pic credits Twitter

Member of the delegation accompanying Pelosi are leading members of the House of Representatives: Gregory Meeks, Mark Takano, Suzan DelBene, Raja Krishnamoorthi and Andy Kim….reports Asian Lite News

Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi has embarked on a trip to Asia which will take her to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, her office said in a statement, but did not mention of a stop in Taiwan.

In the statement on Sunday, Pelosi’s office said that the “trip will focus on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance in the Indo-Pacific region”.

“Today, our Congressional delegation travels to the Indo-Pacific to reaffirm America’s strong and unshakeable commitment to our allies and friends in the region,” the House Speaker was quoted as saying in the statement.

“In Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, our delegation will hold high-level meetings to discuss how we can further advance our shared interests and values, including peace and security, economic growth and trade, the Covid-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, human rights and democratic governance.

“Under the strong leadership of President Biden, America is firmly committed to smart, strategic engagement in the region, understanding that a free and flourishing Indo-Pacific is crucial to prosperity in our nation and around the globe,” she added.

Member of the delegation accompanying Pelosi are leading members of the House of Representatives: Gregory Meeks, Mark Takano, Suzan DelBene, Raja Krishnamoorthi and Andy Kim.

The commencement of the trip comes after tensions again heightened between the US and China over speculation that Pelosi could also make a stop in Taiwan.

China, which claims Taiwan, warned of “serious consequences” over the possible visit, the BBC reported.

Pelosi’s original plan was to visit Taiwan in April, but she postponed the trip after she tested positive for Covid-19.

he last House Speaker to visit Taiwan was Republican Newt Gingrich in 1997.

ALSO READ: Xi and Biden exchange warnings on Taiwan

Categories
Business India News

Smartphone shipment continue to fall

Samsung led the market with 61.8 million smartphones shipped and a 21 per cent market share…reports Asian Lite news

Global smartphone shipments fell to 287 million units in the second quarter (Q2), a massive 9 per cent drop, as component orders are being cut rapidly and suppliers have started to be concerned about oversupply, a Canalys report has said.

The Q2 global smartphone figures are the lowest quarterly figure since Q2 2020, when the pandemic first hit.

Samsung led the market with 61.8 million smartphones shipped and a 21 per cent market share.

Despite the weak seasonality, Apple held on to second place, shipping 49.5 million iPhones for a 17 per cent market share.

Xiaomi stayed in third place with 39.6 million units, while OPPO and vivo completed the top five with 27.3 and 25.4 million units, respectively.

?According to analyst Toby Zhu, vendors could use the extra savings to improve the product competitiveness of new launches in the second half of the year.

“At the same time, that might make getting rid of old models even harder. The oversupply situation is demanding more of vendors’ planning capabilities than the shortage period,” Zhu noted.

The global smartphone market is suffering a second period of falling shipments after a brief recovery in 2021, and the sudden drop in demand is hitting the leading vendors.

“Despite 6 per cent annual growth, Samsung’s shipments fell 16% on the previous quarter as the vendor struggled with unhealthy inventory levels, especially in the mid-range,” said research analyst Runar Bjorhovde.

Meanwhile, solid demand for the iPhone 13 series in North America, China and Europe enabled Apple to grow despite the headwinds.

“The high-end has proven relatively resilient during the recession, while promotions and financing options have helped with affordability,” Bjorhovde noted.

Going forward, there will be increasing tensions throughout the entire smartphone supply chain as demand weakness will likely continue for an extended period.

“The market is experiencing exceptionally challenging business conditions. Vendors should improve transparency when working with component suppliers and channel partners in the following quarters,” Zhu said

ALSO READ: Apple’s India revenue doubled

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Business India News

Oppo India’s ‘Vihan’ to boost smartphone industry

Under this programme, the company said it will invest $60 million in the next 5 years…reports Asian Lite News

Smartphone brand OPPO India on Friday launched a new initiative — Vihaan — to empower small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to amplify their operations and, in turn, strengthen the local supply chain for a robust smartphone eco-system in the country.

Under this programme, the company said it will invest $60 million in the next 5 years.

“The forward-looking, industry-friendly policies of the Indian Government have created an enabling environment which nurtures and promotes innovation, unleashing the electronics manufacturing industry,” Vivek Vasishtha, Vice-President, Public Affairs, OPPO India, said in a statement.

“With a robust local supply chain getting established, the time is right for promoting exports of our quality ‘Make in India’ smartphones to identified markets. This would facilitate OPPO India in expanding the export capacity to $5 billion over the next five years,” he added.

OPPO India said it has already invested heavily to enhance the country’s manufacturing prowess, which has made the company a leader in ‘Make in India’ smartphone shipments with 22 per cent year-on-year growth in the first quarter of 2022, as per a Counterpoint Research report.

“In tandem with the government’s vision of an ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, OPPO India will be strongly supporting local manufacturing and exports, SMEs and MSMEs, cutting-edge technologies, and skill development in the sector through the ‘Vihaan’ programme,” Vasishtha said.

OPPO India aims to partner with more local suppliers to strengthen the local supply chain for a robust smartphone ecosystem in India.

The company has collaborated with the government and industry in encouraging around 30 Tier-1 suppliers to set up operations in India.

They have employed tens of thousands of Indian locals contributing to developing the electronics industry and enhancing India’s stature in the global value chains.

In the next 5 years, the company said it will be focussing on initiating the development of next-gen technologies such as AI, 5G etc., to accelerate the product development process from India, empowering and mentoring technology start-ups end-to-end, and exploring collaborations with educational institutions to nurture the innovation culture.

ALSO READ: Apple CEO optimistic on 5G future

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Business

‘India ready for accelerated 5G infrastructure deployment’

As 5G is set to become a reality soon, Dell Technologies has introduced software-driven storage innovations that provide intelligent insights, security, and increased productivity for Indian businesses…reports Asian Lite News

As India begins to take first steps towards 5G with a record Rs 1.5 lakh crore spectrum auction, a top Dell Technologies India executive said on Sunday that the company expects to witness the beginning of an accelerated 5G infrastructure deployment serving both urban and rural India sooner than expected.

The development will boost adoption of advanced technologies such as the Internet of Things, Industrial IoT, edge computing, and robotics across industries like agriculture, e-commerce, healthcare, education, and pharma, according to Manish Gupta, VP and GM, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Dell Technologies India.

“As enterprises look to bring more and more of their applications to the public cloud, they’ll also need enterprise-grade solutions and services for their workloads that are integrated with their on-premises infrastructure stacks,” Gupta told IANS.

The convergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the Internet of Things, Industry 4.0 will reduce manufacturing costs, improve quality and yields.

“Data Analytics, AI and Machine Learning (ML) will penetrate new market segments and enable better, data-driven decisions for businesses resulting in more precise, real-time, and predictive analytics,” he emphasised.

As 5G is set to become a reality soon, Indian micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which are focused towards driving revenue growth and are reluctant to invest in IT infrastructure solutions initially, will require a resilient journey to Cloud.

“MSMEs require flexibility to manage workloads — upgrading existing IT infrastructure by raising their capabilities to manage future workloads will give them the edge over competition, offer optimal services to customers and strengthen their relationships with partners in the age of digital transformation,” Gupta said.

Dell Technologies is offering customised enterprise support to organisations of every size, scale, and sector.

“With our broad portfolio of solutions, the right server, storage, cloud, and cybersecurity solutions will help shape the future for MSMEs, turning them into profitable enterprises who take actions on the basis of cutting-edge insights, for mapping progress through the market of tomorrow,” said the company executive.

Dell Technologies has introduced software-driven storage innovations that provide intelligent insights, security, and increased productivity for Indian businesses.

These advancements will give businesses a secure and flexible environment to derive critical insights to grow in the digital era, according to Gupta.

“Our infrastructure solutions are designed to integrate IT processes and reduce complexities for businesses This is one of the reasons towards our industry leadership in the country in the servers segment for consecutive three quarters, where our revenue crossed the 40 per cent mark in the Indian servers market,” said Gupta.

The 5G spectrum auction has crossed Rs 1.5 lakh crore after 30 rounds and the auction will continue for a few more days, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Saturday.

Led by Reliance Jio so far, the 5G spectrum auction by the Department of Telecom (DoT) received bids for more than Rs 112 crore in seven rounds on day 5.

Addressing the ‘Telecom Investors Roundtable’ in Mumbai, Vaishnaw said that there is no upfront paymentA and the winning telecom companies can pay the money over a period of 20 years.

“There is no upfront payment so that reduces the cash flow stress significantly. Since the auction has crossed Rs 1.5 lakh crore, give a big round of applause for the telecom industry,” the minister told the gathering after he was told that the bids crossed the figure.

In 2015, after 19 days of fierce bidding, the telecom spectrum auction had fetched Rs 1.10 lakh crore for the government.

On Friday, the spectrum auction saw intense bidding for the 1800 Mhz band in Uttar Pradesh (East) with the per unit price of the band increasing by 49 per cent to Rs 135.60 crore.

The main bidders are Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, and a unit of Gautam Adani’s Adani enterprises.

According to Vaishnaw, the government reduced the price of the spectrum significantly, removed several charges, and gave many relaxations.

The ongoing 5G spectrum auction indicates that the country’s telecom industry has come a long way in 5G advancements, he said.

The industry has emerged to become a sunrise industry in India and a benchmark for the world, the minister added.

ALSO READ: Ola electric see sharpest drop in EV 2 wheeler sales

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Sport Sports

Smriti shines as India beat Pakistan in CWG 2022

While his captain R B Ramesh was more pragmatic. He said, “In any professional sport, one has to be ready for any type of position and situations.”…reports Asian Lite News

All the six Indian Teams in fray in both sections of the 44th Chess Olympiad being played here won their matches to maintain a clean slate.

The India A Team ranked second beat Greece with a 3-1 score, Team B trounced Switzerland 4-0 and Team C beat Iceland 3-1. The Indian women won their third-round matches to keep up perfect scores. India A defeated England 3-1, India B scored over Indonesia 3-1 and India C beat Austria 2.5-1.5.

The highlight of Sunday’s round was Ramesh Babu Praggnanandhaa playing for Team B and wriggling out of an inferior position, which appeared totally lost at one point against Swiss grandmaster Yannick Pelletier.

The teenager, without giving up, continued to pose problems, making it difficult for his opponent to find the winning way. Pelletier fell short on time, missed his way and ended on the losing side on the 67th turn.

Pragg wasn’t satisfied despite winning a point as he said, “I have played badly and this point doesn’t give me any joy and I struggled throughout this game in a bad position”.

While his captain R B Ramesh was more pragmatic. He said, “In any professional sport, one has to be ready for any type of position and situations.”

Last minute entrant Indian women c team defeated Austria by a narrow 2.5-1.5 score to win their third-round match.

The women’s A Team also looked poised to win their match against England.

In the Open section, all the three Indian teams clinched their third-round matches against Greece, Switzerland and Iceland respectively even though one game in each team was still in progress.

Koneru Humpy was rested today and Harika took over on the top board for her first game at this Olympiad which incidentally is her 9th one along with two virtual ones.

The 31-year-old Harika is in the advanced stages of her first pregnancy and was playing Jovanka Houska of England on the top board for India A team. Harika opted for the Queen’s gambit and declined variation against Jovanka as fortunes fluctuated throughout this game.

The players indulged in a spate of exchanges at regular intervals to enter a rook and three pawn each ending and with no progress possible, decided to split the point on the 40th turn.

A disappointed Harika quipped, “The game was balanced with the position fluctuating only slightly and I never had enough advantage to press.”

WGM Nandhidhaa P V representing team c was the first player to gain a point, courtesy a walkover by Chiara Polterauer who is unwell.

Nadhidhaa who has notched 3 points in 3 outings said, “This is my first Olympiad and I am playing in my home town Chennai and this is enough to give me extra energy. In my opinion ratings and seedings don’t matter. Even our team has a chance to be amongst the medals and we are ready to give our best.”

Eesha Karavade enhanced her space advantage in a Sicilian Defence game against Katharina Newrkla with the latter playing passively.

A centralised knight and well posted pieces indicated winning possibilities for Eesha but the game abruptly ended in a draw after 27 moves with most pieces still gracing the board.

Representing Team A, Harikrishna played an exciting game in a Catalan Opening against Dimitri Mastrovasilis, one which was replete with fireworks. Harikrishna was at his tactical best and launched an attack with a bishop sacrifice on the 24th turn. Black’s castle was ripped open and a well posted knight in enemy territory started creating problems for the black King, especially with the queen also joining the action.

Harikrishna then offered the sacrifice of his second bishop on the 28th turn which was promptly rejected.

However, with Harikrishna’s pieces swarming around the Black King, Dimitri decided to resign on the 29th turn.

Harikrishna was happy with the proceedings and summed up, “I gave a lot of thought before sacrificing the double bishops as I wanted to ensure my calculations were right and reckoned that if it didn’t work out in a checkmating position, I held sufficient advantage to walk towards victory.”

ALSO READ-India’s Harika targets medal at 44th Chess Olympiad

Categories
-Top News UK News World News

Commonwealth must adopt a common standard on rights

At the next Commonwealth Summit, the Secretariat should make public figures relating to the trend line of the proportion of minorities in countries of the group, writes Prof. Madhav Nalapat

Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri initiated the Green Revolution and began transforming India from a famine-stricken nation to an exporter of food grains. In this task, Shastri received substantial help from both Indian as well as US scientists. Both sides worked to ensure better farming methods, seeds and easier access to items needed to boost productivity. In the future, the provisions of the Farm Bills that were withdrawn in a gesture to the relatively small percentage of farmers (mostly from a single state) who opposed it need to be made effective at the state and not the union level.

Just as Prohibition (of alcohol) is a state subject, so too should be several other fields of policy and legislation such as the farm bills. It was Prime Minister Narasimha Rao who initiated the process of changeover from the Soviet model that had been imposed by Prime Minister Nehru and continued in various forms under his successors. As PM, Rajiv Gandhi did make efforts at reform, including in the field of telecom and in seeking to devolve responsibility to the panchayat level. India was a country where the then Finance Minister opposed in the 1980s the introduction of colour television. Once Rajiv took over as PM in 1984, such a recalcitrance to embrace rather than shun the change that progress brings was sought to be cast aside.

Unfortunately, very soon the entrenched party and state bureaucracy began to have an overpowering influence over Rajiv Gandhi, thereby emasculating his attempts at reform. Although Satyen Pitroda ensured that a trunk call, even to a faraway location, became a matter of routine due to the changes made by him, ensuring that telecom innovators were permitted in the private sector as well had to wait until Narasimha Rao took over in 1992.

Had there been a Roosevelt or a Kennedy rather than a Clinton in the White House, Rao as PM could have gone much further than he did. Where the world outside the Atlantic Alliance was concerned, President Clinton (a) ignored the growing risk caused by Wahhabi extremism, while (b) ensuring through measures initiated or backed by the White House that the Chinese Communist Party was given as much help as possible to someday overtake the US as the world’s most consequential country. Only after Narendra Modi took over as Prime Minister in 2014 did a more constructive relationship develop between 7 Lok Kalyan Marg (the official home of the Prime Minister of India) and the White House, whether under Presidents Obama, Trump or now Biden.

Once Modi took over, the same upward movement in bilateral relations was visible even where the UK was concerned. Both Prime Ministers David Cameron and Boris Johnson adopted a friendly tone, a situation likely to continue once 10 Downing Street becomes the official home of either Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss. The latter as Foreign Secretary has hopped with zest onto the reckless sanctions and weapons supply bandwagon piloted by Biden and Johnson since the war between Ukraine and Russia erupted less than six months ago. Seeking to exclude trade and contact with Russia, a country that is half the size of Europe, while being half the size of Asia, is another of the exercises in self-destruction that European leaders seem prone to, as was witnessed during the first half of the 20th century.

Candidate Truss has announced in the Global Britain forum that the Commonwealth will be a priority for her, should she get more votes among Tories than Sunak and take over from Johnson. This easygoing organisation needs to focus on a matter of supreme importance to human rights, which is an alarming fall in the number of minorities within some of the members of the Commonwealth. Apart from holding soirees and generating events filled with light entertainment, it is not clear as to what the Commonwealth as an organisation actually does. The Commonwealth Secretariat needs to compile a statistical tables of the number and proportion of minorities within the countries in its ranks. There are countries where minorities have almost disappeared, while in some other member states, their number is dwindling at an alarming rate.

Oddly, supporters within the UK of the extremists that are killing and driving out Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists in countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh are precisely those who seek to divert international attention from such crimes by instead obsessing on India, a country where there are 230 million citizens belonging to the minority communities and counting. It would appear that a knowledge of mathematics is not the strong point of the leaders of the Atlantic Alliance, who have thus far ignored the fate of the minorities in Pakistan or Bangladesh, reserving their obloquy for India in the face of evidence that points to the need to do the contrary. At the next Commonwealth Summit, what is needed is for the Secretariat to make public figures relating to the trend line of the proportion of minorities in countries of the group.

Any country where the minorities are made to feel unsafe and who therefore relocate (forcibly or otherwise) to other countries needs to be called out. Not just wealth but values are important in a group that is significant in its size although not as yet in its influence. A common standard for rights and common values ought to be made an accurate description of the Commonwealth. For such an outcome to come about, the organisation needs to get serious about ensuring that human rights are protected in every member state, and that women and minorities in particular are given equal treatment within any member state and not discriminated against.

Majority and minority ought to be equally and fairly treated. Ignoring the need to have universal accountability for universal values is a moral morass that the Commonwealth needs to avoid. Instead, it must ensure that countries where minorities are diminishing in plain sight ought to be called out. Such an “inconvenient truth” has all too often been ignored by self-proclaimed champions human rights. Principles need to be universally and not selectively applied, at least in the Commonwealth.

ALSO READ: Report alleges Charles accepted 1 mn pound donation from Bin Laden’s family

Categories
India News Sport Sports

All 6 Indian teams win matches on 3rd day of Chess Olympiad

Fox News says that Americans are already looking forward to 2024, and the majority of voters revealed they do not want either Biden or Trump to run for President, and so does a recent Suffolk University/USA Today…reports Asian Lite News

Amid predictions of a Trump vs Biden rematch in 2024, polls suggest voters want neither, but a new face with a focused agenda to repair the economy, the job market and control rising prices of groceries and gas, and eventually the 40-year-high inflation ahead of the winter.

Odds seem stacked against the Democrats in the upcoming Nov mid-term polls, with President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ ratings plummeting by the day and Donald Trump with a wafer-thin edge over the incumbent President.

The battle of the ballot is going to be over the Biden administration’s efforts to rejuvenate the economy and rid it of inflation, fears of recession, control soaring house rentals, properties, grocery prices, shortage of raw materials, scarcity of baby food formulas vs Trump’s ability to survive the tearing pieces of evidence of his alleged collaboration in assembling and inciting a riotous mob at the Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021 to not to certify Biden’s election.

However, how much of this is going to weigh in with the voters in midterms and in the primaries with the party members and funders for both the ex and incumbent is the big question.

Most Democrats want someone other than Biden to run for president in 2024 – but he could still beat Trump, says CNBC quoting a poll. Only 26 per cent of Democrats said they would prefer him to be their party’s candidate in the 2024 election, and 64 per cent want someone else, a new poll survey has found. Biden’s age (82 in November this year) and job performance were the top reasons cited by Democrats on why they wanted a candidate other than Biden to be the party nominee, The New York Times/Siena College poll found.

Just 13 per cent of voters of all kinds say the US is “on the right track”, while 77 per cent said it was “headed in the wrong direction”. However, Biden would likely defeat Trump again if the election were held now, the survey suggested, with 44 per cent of voters selecting him, compared to 41 per cent for Trump.

While that finding is potentially very bad news for Biden’s reelection hopes, the poll has even worse news when it comes to younger Democratic voters and for how all voters see the country’s direction. A whopping 94 per cent of Democrats who are less than 30 years old said they want someone besides Biden, the survey found.

A Gallup poll last week that found that just 33 per cent of respondents believe Biden deserves to be reelected, while 67 per cent said he does not deserve a second term. That is 4 percentage points lower than the level of support for reelection Trump saw in an April 2018 poll, which came more than two years before he faced Biden.

In the Times/Siena poll, the top problems that voters believe are facing the US were the economy, which 20 per cent of respondents identified as the most important problem, followed by “inflation and the cost of living”, which 15 per cent identified. Eleven per cent of respondents identified “the state of democracy” or “political division” as their top concern, while 10 per cent said gun policies were the most important problem.

Abortion and women’s rights were cited as the top concern for 5 per cent of respondents. The Supreme Court in a major ruling on June 24 said there is no federal right to abortion, reversing a nearly half-century-old opinion that it issued in the Roe v. Wade case. The decision is expected to ultimately result in abortion being banned or more severely restricted than it previously was in nearly half of the US states.

UK’s The Guardian says on the Republican side of the ledger, “Someone else” (than Trump) also led, with 38.1 per cent of the vote.

Florida Governor Rino DeSantis has attracted 23.4 per cent support and Mike Pence, Trump’s Vice President, received 20.5 per cent.

Also attracting support were the former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, and Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton.

Fox News says that Americans are already looking forward to 2024, and the majority of voters revealed they do not want either Biden or Trump to run for President, and so does a recent Suffolk University/USA Today.

Roughly 68 per cent of voters said they do not want Biden to run again and 65 per cent do not want to see Trump make another run for the White House. Asked who in the Democratic Party voters would rather see run for President in 2024, Harris and Senator Bernie Sanders, tied for first place, with nearly 18 per cent support for each. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg received 16 per cent.

Among the other rumoured 2024 contenders, Senator Amy Klobuchar received 11 per cent, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez clocked in at 10 per cent, and California Governor Gavin Newsom garnered just 8 per cent.

DeSantis appears to be Trump’s toughest competition in 2024. But reports also suggest that Trump has been unbeatable head-to-head in any of the earlier bids at his presidency and 3rd bid will not buck the trend.

Trump received the most support with 43 per cent choosing him as their 2024 pick. DeSantis came in second place with 34 per cent support. While 8 per cent still remain undecided, 7 per cent said Pence would be their choice. Representative Liz Cheney, who is a member of the Jan 6 Committee, Haley and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie all received under 3 per cent of the vote.

Biden, who sees himself as the Democrat with the best chance of beating Trump, is suffering from anaemic approval ratings. Yet one top Democratic donor said the poll showing Biden beating Trump, who could announce a new run for the White House any day, is giving the President “some life at a time when he really needs it”.

Biden ran in the 2020 contest to end Trump’s presidency, saying no other Democrat could take him on and win after the Republican’s shocking win over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Biden, Barack Obama’s Vice President for the previous eight years, didn’t run in 2016. Given Biden’s political problems, the 2024 scenario is setting itself up as quite the conundrum for Democrats.

“Trump is like a steroid boost for Democrats,” said Jim Kessler, Executive Vice President for policy at the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way.

He acknowledged that the November midterms are likely to be difficult for Democrats but said that a Trump reelection announcement could help boost turnout among the base.

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Categories
-Top News Asia News

Sheikh Rasheed takes jibe at Nawaz Sharif

The politician went on to say that the coalition government “just keeps holding ineffective press conferences” while Imran Khan has “taken over” after a brief campaign…reports Asian Lite News

Former Pakistan interior minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed on Sunday said that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, who decided to oust former premier Imran Khan through a vote of no-confidence, is now considering the option of leaving the government, the media reported.

“The decision on the no-confidence motion was made in London. The same Nawaz Sharif is now talking about leaving the government,” Rasheed tweeted, once again turning his guns to the PML-N leadership, Geo News reported.

He said that the country is in an “economic jam” and the people cannot pay bills of electricity and gas alongside a fixed tax.

The politician went on to say that the coalition government “just keeps holding ineffective press conferences” while Imran Khan has “taken over” after a brief campaign.

“The government is at zero, while he (Imran Khan) has become a hero,” said Rasheed, a close aide of the former Prime Minister, Geo News reported.

In a separate tweet, Rasheed further stated that “neither China, Dubai, Qatar nor Saudi Arabia helped Pakistan this time”, nor has the country secured funds under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme.

“China has extreme reservations regarding the US conditions for the aid, while (Pakistan is left with) reserves enough for only 45 days instead of 90 days,” the Awami Muslim League leader wrote, Geo News reported.

Rasheed then criticised JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, saying that he and outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) “have the same stance” on the integration of former Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

ALSO READ: Nawaz Sharif wants early elections

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Lite Blogs

Yash Chopra banner not reaching up to audience expectations?

‘Samrat Prithviraj’, despite being made tax free in three states, has netted Rs 68 crore since its release on June 3 this year. Its budget? Rs 150 crore…writes SOURISH BHATTACHARYYA

When Ranbir Kapoor appeared on screens after four years in Karan Malhotra’s ‘Shamshera’, that too along with the flawed star he played in the blockbuster ‘Sanju’, audience expectations were sky high. But at the end of its first week on a record 5,250 screens worldwide, it has not even been able to surpass a collection of Rs 40 crore.

And it seems to have not much of a chance, thanks to the pincer attack of the John Abraham-Arjun Kapoor-starrer ‘Ek Villain Returns’, which is expected to wrap up its first weekend with Rs 24 crore, according to the trade media, and Kannada actor Kichcha Sudeep-led 3D film ‘Vikrant Rona’, which has garnered Rs 37-38 crore.

For Ranbir, who’s now better known as ‘Mr Alia Bhatt’, ‘Shamshera’ is the sixth flop of his career, starting with his debut film with Sanjay Leela Bhansali, ‘Saawariya’ (2007), but for the banner behind the Rs 150-crore period action drama, Yash Raj Films (YRF), it will be the fourth flop in succession.

The production house, whose brand name carries the imprimatur of one of the most successful hitmakers, Yash Chopra, and is helmed by the late producer-director’s son, Aditya Chopra, has had a bad run ever since Siddhant Chaturvedi’s ‘Bunty Aur Babli 2’ (despite the appearance of one of the original hit’s stars — Rani Mukherjee — with Saif Ali Khan), released on November 19, 2021, could net a measly Rs 12 crore (gross collection less taxes), according to ‘Box Office India.


That is a little more than a quarter of the film’s budget — Rs 45 crore.

Adding insult to injury, in a year when dubbed southern films are making cash as if it is going out of fashion, Ranveer Singh’s
‘Jayeshbhai Jordaar’, released on May 13 this year, could net just Rs 16.6 crore, against a budget of Rs 90 crore.

This was Ranveer’s second screen debacle after the much-hyped Cricket World Cup 1983 drama, ’83’, where the actor essayed Kapil Dev, the captain of the victorious Indian team.

Then came what was to be the film that would equal, if not beat, Vivek Agnihotri’s ‘The Kashmir Files’ because it was to appeal to the same constituency — ‘Samrat Prithviraj’. Its lead actor is the pre-Covid hit machine, Akshay Kumar, who was fresh from the middling success of ‘Sooryavanshi’, it was supported by the leading lights of the BJP, and its script, according to its maker Chandraprakash Dwivedi, was in the making for 18 years.

Clearly, the audiences did not relate with a ruler in the distant past, even if he had been elevated to the rank of a ‘Samrat’, who ended up losing to a foreign invader. In the post-Covid world, they were looking for heroes with the brawn and heft of the characters played by Ram Charan and Jr NTR in ‘RRR’ — heroes who took on the mightiest empire of their time and won.

‘Samrat Prithviraj’, despite being made tax free in three states, has netted Rs 68 crore since its release on June 3 this year. Its budget? Rs 150 crore.

Not that YRF isn’t used to its films failing, but it must be remembered that out of its filmography of 65 releases, starting with the Anil Kapoor-Sridevi-starrer ‘Lamhe’ (1991), 11 have been blockbusters, including the iconic ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’, which launched Aditya Chopra as the new hitmaker, and ‘Dhoom 3’, 13 have been hits or superhits, and seven semi-hits, according to Box Office India data.

Still, compared with 31 blockbusters to semi-hits, YRF has logged 34 ‘flops’ or ‘disasters’. Let us crunch the numbers a little more and focus only on the time after the passing of Yash Chopra in 2012.

Our analysis indicates 14 out of the 29 films released from 2012 onwards were in the ‘disaster’, ‘flop’ or ‘below average’ zones, but YRF also rolled out five blockbusters — ‘War’ (released ironically on Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary in 2019; Rs 292 crore); ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ (2017; Rs 339 crore); ‘Sultan’ (2016; Rs 301 crore); ‘Dhoom 3’ (2013; 261 crore); and last, ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ (2012; Rs 186 crore). All the earnings cited here are net collections, not inflation adjusted, listed on the Box Office India website.

What should get YRF worried, however, is that it has not had a single hit since ‘War’. Before its post-Covid disastrous run, the last half-way decent success was the Rani Mukherjee-led ‘Mardaani 2’, a low-budget film with a relatively known cast.

It must be making Aditya Chopra nostalgic about the banner’s humongously successful run between 1993 and 2000 with ‘Darr’ (1993), ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ (1995), ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’ (1997) and ‘Mohabbatein’ (2000).

Of these, of course, the unforgettable SRK-Kajol star vehicle, ‘DDLJ’, has made an inflation-adjusted net collection of Rs 461.33 crore, making it the fourth highest-earning Hindi film of all time after ‘Hum Aapke Hain Koun’, ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’ and ‘Gadar: Ek Prem Katha’.

It is said that it was SRK who revived Yash Chopra’s fortunes with ‘Darr’ and ‘DDLJ’. Will his magic work all over again for the banner with ‘Pathaan’? For the answer, we’ll have to wait for January 25, 2023.

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Report alleges Charles accepted 1 mn pound donation from Bin Laden’s family

“The decision to accept was taken by the charity’s trustees alone and any attempt to characterize it otherwise is false,” the statement added…reports Asian Lite News

UK’s Prince Charles, the longest-serving heir apparent to the throne in British history, accepted a donation of 1 million pounds (USD 1.21 million) from the family of Osama bin Laden IN 2013.

As first reported by The Sunday Times of London, The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund received the donation in 2013 from the brothers Bakr and Shafiq bin Laden, half-brothers of Osama bin Laden, the founder of Al Qaeda and architect of the September 11 attacks, quoted The New York Times (NYT). Clarence House confirmed that the terrorist’s brothers donated money to the royal charity, but denied reports that the prince had personally brokered the deal or made the decision to accept it.

“The Prince of Wales’ Charitable Fund has assured us that thorough due diligence was undertaken in accepting this donation,” read a statement released by Clarence House.

“The decision to accept was taken by the charity’s trustees alone and any attempt to characterize it otherwise is false,” the statement added.

News of the payment follows a series of recent royal scandals, including a report in June that Prince Charles had accepted USD 3.1 million in cash donations from a Qatari billionaire between 2011 and 2015, some of which was received personally in a suitcase and shopping bags, reported NYT.

The UK paper reported that Prince Charles had brokered the payment after a private meeting with Bakr bin Laden at Clarence House in London on October 30, 2013, two years after Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan.

The paper also reported that the heir to the throne had agreed to accept the donation despite the vocal objections of his own advisers, reported NYT.

Some of the prince’s aides had warned Charles of the inevitable blowback should it become known that his charity had accepted money from the family of the man who orchestrated the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, including 67 Britons.

A royal official, unauthorized to speak publicly, denied that the prince accepted the donation, negotiated the deal or was advised to return the money, reported NYT.

Founded in 1979, The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund says that its mission is “to transform lives and build sustainable communities by awarding grants to a wide range of good causes within our core funding themes: heritage and conservation, education, health and well-being, social inclusion, environment and countryside.” (ANI)

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